Santa Ana Set to Sizzle by Mid-Century, Says New Climate Change Report

The realities of global warming have just become a lot more local. "Mid-Century Warming in the Los Angeles Region," released yesterday just as summer begins, is touted as the first study to make unique regional and city climate change predictions. The research findings by UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability shows that the heat is on across Southern California including SanTana.

The data charts predict that, by mid-century, the average annual temperature in the city chosen as an example location for OC will rise by 3.9 degrees and in the worst case scenario as much as 6.4 degrees. Researchers hold that extremely hot days over 95 degrees will see a three-fold increase while twenty-three additional days in all will send the mercury rising above 87.8 degrees.

Feeling those beads of sweat on your forehead yet?

Other areas, including the oven that already is the Inland Empire, outpace Santa Ana, but ecosystems and counties are interwoven. As the heat rises, the snow pack of the San Bernardino Mountains will be adversely affected to the point where there may not even be any to speak of. "That is going to present a challenge for the water system of Orange County," says

Jonathan Parfey

, Executive Director of

Climate Resolve

.

The information compiled provides a detailed heads up for local governments to start planning for el calor to come. Are you listening, Don Papi Pulido?

The future as it stands may only be able to be mitigated, however, and not by much. "Even if we drastically cut pollution worldwide, there will still be quite a bit of warming in Los Angeles," says lead researcher Alex Hall in the report's press release. "I was a little taken aback by how much warming remains, no matter how aggressively we cut back. It was sobering."